Pieter Abbeel
About Pieter Abbeel
Pieter Abbeel is a Professor at UC Berkeley, where he has taught since 2008. He directs the Robot Learning Lab and co-directs the Berkeley AI Research (BAIR) Lab. His research covers machine learning and robotics. It focuses on robots that learn from people (apprenticeship learning), through trial and error (reinforcement learning), and through learning-to-learn (meta-learning). He was born in Antwerp, Belgium, and earned his BS and MS in electrical engineering at KU Leuven. His PhD in computer science is from Stanford.
He has founded or co-founded two companies. Gradescope, co-founded in 2014, is an online grading platform that was later acquired by Turnitin. Covariant was co-founded in 2017 with three of his students and was first called Embodied Intelligence. It builds AI that teaches robots complex skills. He was also a research scientist at OpenAI from 2016 to 2017.
Crunchbase lists his current role as Founder, President and Chief Scientist at Covariant. A third-party profile reports that Covariant raised $147 million before its founders and core technology moved to Amazon in 2024. Berkeley's faculty page also describes him as an Amazon Scholar. He hosts The Robot Brains podcast.
Crunchbase counts 13 investments and 11 portfolio companies for Abbeel as an individual. It records no lead investments and three exits, none by IPO. Other databases count differently. PitchBook lists 22 investments, 17 portfolio companies and 4 exits, and classes him as an active angel. The gap likely reflects differences in what each database tracks, so treat the counts as approximate.
Beyond investing, he advises startups. PitchBook lists advisory roles at Engram Lab, Tensorflight, Deep Valley Labs, Waabi, 11.2 Capital and Onai. It also lists a board seat at Perplexity AI. His Berkeley bio describes him as an advisor and investor to many AI and robotics startups.
In 2021 Abbeel joined AIX Ventures as an Investment Partner, and he is described as a founding partner. AIX is a venture fund that invests in artificial intelligence startups. A third-party profile reports that AIX closed a second fund of $202 million in February 2024. That is a fund figure, not his personal capital.
PitchBook's list of his personal deals includes Perplexity (April 2023), Ideogram (August 2023) and ZenML (October 2023). It also includes Grounded Superintelligence (July 2025) and Engram Lab (December 2025). Some other entries on that list carry dates that look unreliable, so confirm any specific deal with the founder or the company before citing it.
Abbeel's public focus is AI and robotics. The AIX Ventures profiles describe early-stage investing at Pre-Seed and Seed, across AI applications and infrastructure, developer tools, health and biotech. One investor database also lists Series A. His own research background is in deep reinforcement learning, generative AI and robot learning, so robotics and foundation-model companies are a natural fit.
He is based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The AIX profiles describe a U.S. focus.
He has not published a personal check size. NFX Signal lists an investment range of $500K to $2.0M with a $1M sweet spot for his profile. It is a third-party listing and probably reflects his AIX role, so confirm it directly. We found no public statement from him on what he screens for in a pitch.
- Perplexity: AI answer engine. PitchBook lists an April 2023 investment and a board role.
- Ideogram: AI image generation. PitchBook lists an August 2023 investment.
- ZenML: machine learning pipeline and developer software. PitchBook lists an October 2023 investment.
- Engram Lab: business software. PitchBook lists a December 2025 deal and an advisory role.
- Hugging Face: a third-party profile lists it in the AIX Ventures portfolio.
- Weights & Biases: a third-party profile lists it in the AIX Ventures portfolio.
- Covariant: robotics AI company he co-founded in 2017.
- Gradescope: grading software he co-founded in 2014, later acquired by Turnitin.
Investing activity
Pieter Abbeel has made 13 investments according to Crunchbase across 11 portfolio companies, and has seen 3 exits and founded 2 companies.
Pieter Abbeel appears in 1 AI deal tracked by the Lounge deals desk, rounds totalling $98M. The rounds are mostly Seed, with a median round size of $98M. The most recent is Engram (Seed, $98M, Jun 2026).
Pieter Abbeel most often invests alongside Sequoia Capital, General Catalyst, Kleiner Perkins and Jure Leskovec, and the companies they back on Lounge are mostly in AI.
Deals
Frequently asked questions about Pieter Abbeel
Does Pieter Abbeel invest as an angel?
Yes. Crunchbase and PitchBook both list him as an individual investor, and Crunchbase shows 13 investments. He also invests through AIX Ventures as an Investment Partner.
What stage does Pieter Abbeel invest in?
AIX Ventures profiles describe Pre-Seed and Seed investing, and one database also lists Series A. He has not published stage rules for his personal angel checks.
What is Pieter Abbeel's check size?
He has not made a check size public. NFX Signal lists a range of $500K to $2.0M, but that is a third-party estimate and probably reflects his AIX role.
What sectors does Pieter Abbeel back?
AI and robotics are the main ones. His investments and advisory roles also cover AI applications, developer tools and AI hardware, according to PitchBook and AIX profiles.
What companies has Pieter Abbeel founded?
He co-founded Gradescope in 2014 and Covariant in 2017. He also co-founded AIX Ventures and works as an Investment Partner there.
How can founders reach Pieter Abbeel?
He is on LinkedIn and X, and his Berkeley site lists his academic contact details. Founders should send a short, specific note about their AI or robotics company.
Is Pieter Abbeel an angel investor?
Yes. Pieter Abbeel invests personally as an angel and is Founder, President, Chief Scientist at Covariant. Crunchbase counts 13 investments and 3 exits.
What AI companies has Pieter Abbeel invested in?
Pieter Abbeel's AI investments include Engram. The 1 round on Lounge are listed on this page with amounts, dates and co-investors.
Where is Pieter Abbeel based?
Pieter Abbeel is based in San Francisco, California, United States.
What stage does Pieter Abbeel invest at?
In the rounds tracked on Lounge, Pieter Abbeel has invested at Seed, with a median round of $98M.